Video by Craig Halstead
Words by John Charlton

It has been a really good kick off to summer here in Southeast Queensland. Last week an upper level trough delivered a low pressure system off the central Queensland coast. On Thursday there was a solid east to northeasterly swell pushing down the coast and Noosa sprung into life. The Gold Coast had some solid waves accompanied by heavy rain squalls, but the swell wasn’t fitting in just right.

On Friday morning the low was tracking off to the southeast and was situated between the Gold Coast and Byron Bay at dawn. The swell was from the east in the 4-6foot range on the sets and as clean as a whistle. There were waves on all the points with the banks from Greenmount down to Coolangatta looking extremely good.

On Saturday the swell had tracked further off to the southeast and the swell had dropped to 3-4foot and swung to the east-southeast. There were fun waves to be had along the coast before the storms hit in the afternoon.

Roll on summer of 2011-12, it’s looking very promising at this stage!

- John Charlton